Architect and
inventor who served at the court of King Minos. Daedalus was a descendant
of king Erechteus of Athens. After killing his nephew, who was an even more
skilled artist, he fled Athens and ended up on Crete.
When Minos had offended the gods, Daedalus made a wooden bull that Minos wife
Pasifae was enclosed in, giving birth to the Minotaur as a result. For the
king's daughter Ariadne he built a dancestage.
He also designed the famous labyrinth where the Minotaur was kept, and was
thrown into prison with his son Icarus for revealing the secret of the labyrinth
to Minos's daughter Ariadne, who in her turn had helped Theseus get around
in it. In order to escape, Daedalus made wings out of wax and feathers for
him and his son, and they safely flew out of the prison. Icarus, enchanted
by the fact that he could fly, tried to reach the sun but got too close and
fell from the sky when his wings melted from the heat.
Daedalus made it to King Cocalus of Sicily, whose daughters killed Minus when
he came to get the architect. Daedalus was also believed to have been the
ancestor of all Greek artists, and his name can be translated into the skilled
artistic worker.